What’s The Best Way To Reduce Traffic Violence On Our Streets?

Mayor Bill de Blasio held a press conference yesterday in Queens to address the recent seeming surge of pedestrian deaths so far in 2014, as well as to discuss the particulars of implementing de Blasio’s promised Vision Zero initiative.

“I feel so much for [the families of those killed as a result of NYC traffic violence], ” the mayor said near the site of 8-year-old Noshat Nahian’s December 20 death at the hands of an unlicensed tractor trailer driver, “and I also have so much admiration that they are trying with all their might to protect others.

“They, in each and every case, have lost someone,” said de Blasio, formerly of 11th Street in Park Slope, addressing, among others, the family of neighbor 12-year-old Sammy Cohen-Eckstein. “And yet, they are trying with all their might to make sure that we as a city lose no more people.”

A video on StreetFilms splices de Blasio’s, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton‘s, and incoming DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg‘s words with scenes of vehicles and pedestrians competing for room in city crosswalks.

According to the Department of Health, de Blasio said, being struck by a vehicle is the leading cause of injury-related death for kids under 14 years of age in New York City, and the second leading cause for our seniors.

In what he called “one of the most sobering statistics,” however, de Blasio compared the record low of 333 homicides throughout NYC in 2013 to our 286 traffic fatalities in the same amount of time–a number which may continue to rise if victims of last year’s traffic violence succumb to their injuries (as with East Village flower stand employee Akkas Ali, who died recently after being hit by a driver who jumped the curb on 2nd Avenue in June).

As Bratton put it when discussing what he called inadequate investigations of numerous crashes in NYC, “A life lost is a life lost, whether by murder or a traffic accident.”

Mayor de Blasio offered more specifics about how he plans to make city streets safer:

• NYPD, DOT, DOH, and TLC leaders will report to him no later than February 15 with “very specific and concrete plans” to help successfully execute Vision Zero.

• “Sufficient NYPD resources and personnel” will be deployed to deter traffic offenses–in particular, speeding and failure to yield to pedestrians.

• At least 50 dangerous corridors and intersections will be improved per year, beginning immediately.

• Speed limits will be reduced on city streets (including limits on many streets being reduced to 20 MPH).

• A legislative agenda will be implemented to “hold accountable” negligent or law breaking drivers who kill.

• More speed and red light cameras have already been and will continue to be installed around the five boroughs, with less interference from Albany. In addition, beginning today, speed cameras will issue tickets instead of warnings.

“We’re not going to accept the notion that different agencies are off on their own separate missions when it comes to this,” said de Blasio. “We’re going to demand that this be a common effort.”

PC Bratton also specified that crashes will be investigated when a victim has been “critically injured”–not just when he or she is “likely to die”–upping the NYPD’s estimated number of collision investigations by 20%. In addition, the number of Highway Investigation Unit personnel (who respond to all serious crashes), which was at 180 before de Blasio’s inauguration, is currently at 210 and will be expanded to 270.

According to Bratton, upgraded speed enforcement technology currently being used at 24 precincts across the city will be expanded across all precincts, more summonses will be given for speeding (with a little help from those aforementioned cameras), TrafficStat reports will be utilized (like CompStat reports) to help reduce incidents, and violations including disobeying a sign or traffic signal, improper turns, failure to yield to pedestrians, use of a cell phone or texting while driving, and speeding will be more strictly enforced.

Bratton also says he is having all police precincts submit plans for increasing pedestrian safety, as well as pedestrian awareness and collision prevention initiatives.

Prospect Park South neighbor Ngozi Agbim was tragically killed over the summer while attempting to cross the intersection of Ocean Parkway and Church Avenue in a crosswalk, since which a pedestrian island and other safety measures have been installed–but we continue to see, and experience ourselves, collisions and close calls between multiple drivers as well as drivers and pedestrians on a near-daily basis.

So the question is, what’s your take on Mayor de Blasio and PC Bratton’s plans? And what, in your wildest or most practical dreams, would you do on preventative or enforcement levels to make streets (particularly problematic strips and intersections if you want to get specific) safer in and outside of Ditmas Park?

Photo by Matt Landfield